North Korean House of Cards

On January 27, 2013, Nodong Sinmun reported that Kim Jong-un had
convened a meeting of national security officials two days earlier to discuss “the
grave situation prevailing in the DPRK.” 284 This was the first time that North
Korean media had made such a leadership meeting public. 285 The report was
accompanied by photographs showing Kim Jong-un sitting around a conference
table with General Choe Ryong-hae, Director of the KPA GPB; General Hyon
Yong-chol, Chief of the KPA GSD; General Kim Won-hong, Director of the SSD;
Pak To-chun, KWP Secretary for Defense Industry; Kim Yong-il, KWP Secretary for
International Affairs; Hong Sung-mu, KWP Vice Director of the MID; and Kim
Kye-gwan, First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. During the meeting, Kim Jong-un
was briefed about “the new situation and circumstances prevailing on the Korean
Peninsula and in its vicinity.” In response, “[he] expressed the firm resolution to take
substantial and high-profile important state measures in view of the prevailing
situation as the stand had already been clarified by the NDC and the Foreign Ministry
of the DPRK through their statements that powerful physical countermeasures
would be taken to defend the dignity of the nation and the sovereignty of the country.
He advanced specific tasks to the officials concerned.” Many believe that this was the
meeting in which the upcoming third nuclear test was discussed. 286
284 The meeting reportedly focused on the international community’s reactions to the April 2012
and December 2012 launches of the Unha-3 rocket and the subsequent UN sanctions.
285 Cheong Seong-Chang, “Process for Policymaking Regarding National Security,” Yonhap News
Agency Agency: Vantage Point 36, no. 4 (April 2013).
286 Ibid. and author’s interviews in Seoul, April 2013. In addition, many Pyongyang-watchers in
Seoul suggested that the regime wanted to show a formal process of Kim Jong-un meeting with a “national
security council-like body.” This could be a decision-making structure that Kim would like to put into
place instead of the current one. Others contend that the meeting may have been an abbreviated version
of Kim Jong-un’s Friday national security meetings, which are discussed later.
Ken E. Gause
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